news
A foreign high school student went missing in Utah and his parents in China received a ransom note along with a photo of the boy, police said Friday.
Kai Chuan, a 17-year-old from Riverdale, Utah, 54 miles north of Salt Lake City, was attending school and was last seen Thursday morning.
“Parents informed school authorities that they received photos showing their child had been abducted and a ransom was demanded,” Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said at a news conference.
The school alerted police about a possible kidnapping around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
Zhuang’s host parents told police they were unaware of the student’s disappearance, claiming they had seen him the day before and heard his voice inside the house around 3:30 a.m.
After Zhuang did not reappear Friday morning, an Endangered Missing Person Advisory was issued for the teen, which states that Zhuang is 5 feet 9 inches tall. He is described as an Asian male, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, approximately 150 pounds, with black/brown eyes and brown/black hair. .
According to KUTV, law enforcement officials initially suspected that Qiang had been “forcibly removed from her home and held against her will.”
However, Warren later clarified that there was “no evidence to suggest that she was forcibly removed from her Riverdale home.”
Police have no clue as to who kidnapped the teen, a motive, or whether the kidnappers knew him, his family, or his host family, so police have no clue as to who may have kidnapped the teen. However, no Amber Alert was issued.
Police have provided few details, but say “several investigative operations” are already underway and they are working with the FBI, the U.S. Embassy in China and Chinese authorities to find the missing boy. added.
“The information we have at this time is very limited and detectives and police officers from other jurisdictions are assisting us,” Warren added. “We have been working tirelessly around the clock to locate him and ensure his safety.”
According to the FBI, of the 5,800 missing Asian males reported in 2022, 2,600 were between the ages of 0 and 17.